Driving mechanism.



H. A. SANDOR.

DRIVING MECHANISM.

APPLICATION IILED OCT. 6, 190a.

Patented July 13, 1909.

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W1 T/VESSES H. A. S ANDOR.

DRIVING MECHANISM.

APPLICATION FILED 00w. 6, 100a Patented July 13, 1909.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

HERBERT ALBERT SANDOR, OF LONDON, ENGLAND.

DRIVING MECHANISM.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July 13, 1909.

Application filed October 6, 1908. Serial No. 456,509.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HERBERT ALBERT SAN- non, a German subject, resident of London, England, have invented certain new and useful improvements in Driving Mechanisn'is, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to a driving mechanism its object being to provide a mechanism of this kind which may be employed as a source of energy for most various uses and especially for clock motions, music boxes. vehicles, boats and the like. The motive power for this driving mechanism is furnished by the well known springs inclosed in cylindrical boxes and their force is-much better utilized thanks to the special constructi on of the mechanism, which forms the subject matter of the present invention so as to provide a source of energy which will be far more regular than the spring driving mechanisms known until now.

A further object of this invention is to provide driving mechanisms based upon the employment of two or a larger number of springs which are adapted to act upon a common motive mechanism, this action taking place not as in the well known driving mechanisms in such a manner that a completely tensioned spring is inserted into the mechanism after the force of the others is exhausted and yields its effort until it is itself exhausted but in such a manner that the two or larger number of springs are inserted in the mechanism successively and at determined intervals of time and are afterward again disengaged.

A special kind of effect of springs may be realized. with the mechanism constructed accordin to the principles of the present invention by causing to act upon each other springs which are wound up to different tensions so that the spring which has a higher tension by giving off its energy to the weaker spring increases the tension of the latter which at this moment is at rest.

In the accompanying drawings, given by way of example, is shown one form of em bodiment of the invention comprising two springs only, and in these drawings: Figure 1 shows diagrammatically a top plan view of the construction of the driving mechanism, the stationary top cover plate being removed. Fig. 2 is a side elevation view of same; Fig. 3 shows the stop device of the winding up mechanism. Fig. 4 is a top plan view of the cooperating stop pawls of the springs. Fig. 5 shows a sectional view of one of the spring devices with its stop and winding up devices. Fig. 6 shows the safety device of well known pattern and intended to prevent the e *aggerated winding up, this figure being a section on line 3 of Fig. 5. Fig. 7 shows the ratchet wheel with the pawl and the disengaging rod in section on line of Fig. 5. Fig. 8 is a bottom view of the spring box or barrel, the spring hubs being shown in section along a line .2 of Fig. 5. Fig. 9 shows an elevation view and a top plan view of the coupling member; Fig. 10 shows the coupling disk and the rod for the spring locking device; Fig. 11 shows a dia gram of the entire arrangement of the clock motion. Fig. 12 shows a disengaging mechanism for the members shown by Fig. 10. Fig. 13 shows a top plan view and a side elevation view of the disk appertaining thereto.

In the drawings, all the members of the mechanism occupy the position in which the spring inclosed in barrel a is the working spring and the spring inclosed in barrel 6 being the locked spring the position shown being that occupied a moment. before the reversing takes place.

The same characters of reference designate similar members throughout all the figures of the drawings.

The barrels a and 7) which contain the springs 1 and 2 are directly engaged with each other by means of the barrel wheels 3 and 4 so that their directions of rotation are opposite to each other. The springs 1 and 2 are wound up and mounted in the same direction and are connected in the well known manner at one of their ends with a spring hub and at the other end with the inner periphery of the barrel. The hubs and 6 of the springs are hollow and rotate each on a shaft or axle 7 and 8. Each of the spring hubs is provided with a ratchet wheel 9, the pawls 11, 12 of which are pivotally mounted on the framework of the mechanism and are connected between each other by connecting rod 13 in such a manner T known Maltese cross arranged on the spring barrel with the object of controlling the tension of the springs.

The barrels a, Z) rotate freely on their hubs 5 and 6 respectively. Each of the latter is provided at its lower end with a toothing 15 and each of the barrels carries on the outside of a hub surrounding the spring hub a similar toothing 16 and opposite these toothings 15 and 16 is arranged a toothed annular member 17. then this annular member 17 is engaged with its teeth into the teeth 15 and 16 the barrel and the spring hub are made integral or coupled and consequently the locking of the spring is produced as both its points of attack (at the outside and at the inside) can no longer move with respect to each other. The said coupling is effected by the annular member 17 being mounted on shaft 7 in a rotary manner but is prevented from shifting axially with reference to the-said shaft, this member 17 being engaged into the said two sets of teeth by the axial shifting of the shaft 7 inside the spring hub 5.

A plate 19 provided with inclined grooves 18 and made integral with the shaft 7 forms the actuating member for the said shaft 7 and annular member 17; the axial shifting of shaft 7 is obtained by means of rod 20 moved forward or backward at exactly predetermined intervals, by a suitable device forming a part of the clock train, the pressure exerted by the rod 20 during its forward motion on the inclined grooves 18 producing the shifting of the shaft upward, while the descending motion of the said shaft 7 is produced by gravity or by a special spring (not shown) after the said rod 20 has been withdrawn from the inclined grooves 18 of the plate 19. At the same time the engagement of the rod 20 int-o the groove 18 prevents shaft 7 from rotating. Secured to the opposite end of shaft 7 is the winding up wheel 21 which may be rotated by means of a toothed wheel 23 actuated from the outside by a crank 22, a button or similar member. The width of the wheel 23 is such that the winding up wheel 21 does not leave its toothings during the axial shifting of the shaft 7. A small projection 24 secured to the shaft 7 and which engages a short grooveof the spring hub 5 serves to transmit the winding up motion of the wheel 21 to the spring hub 5 through the medium of the shaft 7. This small projection 24 is raised and disengaged from the corresponding groove of the spring hub when the shaft 7 is raised with a View of performing the coupling of members 15, 16, 17. In order to allow the winding up of the spring the locking which had been effected by the engagement of the rod 20 into the grooves 18 of plate 19 must be done away with, which may be carried out at the desired moment by the withdrawal of the said rod from the said groove, for instance by means of a traction exerted at the required moment on rod 20 in the direction of the arrow 20 shown in Fig. 3, by means of a suitable device (not shown) in the drawings. 7

The above described construction of one of the sources of energy is identical with that of the other sources.

As the springs 1 and 2 have to act alternately at determined intervals of time on the clock train R, the latter must be coupled each time with the driving spring and this the much more as the spring barrels mesh with each other and work in opposite directions of rotation the barrel inclosing the locked spring being carried on by the driving spring in the direction in which it had been wound up. To this end, two pinions 27, 28 connected with the transmission wheels 25, 26 are mounted in a two armed carrier 29. This carrier is adapted to oscillate on a pivot 30 which may form the axle of a pair of transmission wheels 31, 32 so that alternately one or the other of the pinions 27 or 28 are engaged with the toothing 3 or t of the spring casings a and Z), thls reversing of the engagement being effected exactly at the moment when the corresponding spring is locked or set free in order to furnish its work as above described.

The reversing of the engagement that is to say the oscillation of the carrier 29 is performed by a lever arm 34 pivotally mounted by means of its hub or axle 30 and provided with an abutting pin 33, this lever arm being connected with a toothed wheel 35 which constantly meshes with the toothing 3 of the barrel a. As the direction of rotation of this spring barrel 3 is changed according to whether it is its own spring or the other one which is yielding its power, the lever arm 34 is oscillated in one direction or the opposite one and, by means of its pin 33 which strikes against the oscillating carrier 29, pushes the latter in front of it on one side or the other (according to its direction of rotation) until the engagement of the pinions 27, 28 with the wheels 3 and 4 has been reversed. At the same moment, the spring which until then has carried out the driving is locked and the spring which until then was locked is again set free whereby the direction of rotation of the wheels 3 and 4 is reversed and consequently the oscillation of the lever 34 in the opposite direction is performed until the same action is produced on the opposite side.

It is readily seen that at the moment when in the course of'the work one of the springs the pin 33 engages the yoke 29, it is neces sary to produce the locking of the spring which was acting until then as well as the setting free of the spring which until then was locked. These operations are carried out by the following device. Connected with the clockwork R and continuously driven thereby is a shaft carrying a disk 39 provided at its circumference with a notch 38 and adjacent to the latter with a circumferential tongue 10 bent out of the plane of the disk so as to form an incline as clearly shown by Fig 13. Arranged above the disk 39 are two diametrically opposed bolts 35 which are vertically guided in guides 35 and are pressed by springs 35 on the upper surface of the disk 39 at such. a distance from the center of the latter that they are adapted to be pressed down into the notch 38 when the latter comes under them. Under the said disk 39 is pivotally supported a three armed lever 36 arranged in such a manner that its two horizontal arms have their ends just opposite the said spring controlled sliding bolts 35*. The third arm 36 of said lever 36 is downwardly directed and is pivotally connected at its lower end with a connecting rod 37 the opposite end of which is pivotally connected with one of the arms of a three armed lever 37. The arm 37 of the latter actuates through the medium of the connecting rod 13 the rod 13 which controls the pawls 11 and 12. Now, as the engagement and disengagement of the pawls 11 and 12 take place at the same moment as the locking and unlocking of the springs by means of the bar 20 above described, the motions of the lever 37, 37 may be transmitted by means of an arm 10 secured to lever 37, 3'7 and a suitable actuating mechanism shown in Fig. 11 of the drawing by the diagrammatical line 4:1 this mechanism being pivotally connected. at one end with the arm 40 and at the other with the locking arm 20. The driving gear of the disk 39 is timed in such a manner that the notch 38 comes under one of the bolts 35 then under the other one and so on exactly at the moment at which the locking and unlocking of the springs must take place.

The function of the device is as follows Suppose that the two springs have both been wound up as described above and that the spring inclosed in barrel a be the driving one. In this case the parts of this barrel occupy the position shown in Figs. 3 and 5 that is to say that the pawl 11 is engaged into the ratchet wheel 9 and thus locks the iub 5 against motion while the shaft 7 carrying the members 18 and 17 occupies its lowermost position in which the locking member 17 is disengaged thus allowing the barrel (6 to rotate freely and to drive the clock motion It by means of the pinion 27 which has been caused to mesh with it. The said barrel drives at the same time the pinion 35 meshing constantly with it and thus causing the arm 34 to move from the right to the left (Fig. 1). On the contrary in the barrel Z) the rod 20 had previously raised the member 18 and with it the shaft 8 and the member 17 which owing to its engagement with the teeth 15 and 16 locks together the hub 5 and the barrel 6 thus preventing the spring contained therein from exerting any action. The projection 24 has been lifted out of the corresponding notch of the hub 5 and the pawl 12 is disengaged from the ratchet wheel 10. As the member 17 is free to rotate on shaft 8, the three parts Z), 5 and 17 are rotated on this shaft owing to the meshing of the two barrel wheels. During the rotation of the barrel a the the arm 34 has finally been brought sufficiently to the left hand side that its pin 33 is able to strike against the yoke 29 and to oscillate the latter so that the pinion 27 is disengaged from the barrel wheel 3 and the pinion 28 is engaged into the barrel wheel 1. At the same moment the notch 38 arrives under the corresponding pin 35 which is thus freed and shot through the slot 33 engaging the corresponding arm of the lever 36 thus causing the latter to be tilted whereby through the mechanisms described above the pawl 12 is engaged into the ratchet wheel 10 and the pawl 11 disengaged from the ratchet wheel 9 while the rod 20 is moved against the member 19 of the shaft 7 of the barrel a thus raising the said member and causing it to lock the parts 15 and 16 while on the other hand the rod 20 leaves the member 19 of shaft 8 and thus frees the latter. Now the spring 2 drives the clock train while the barrel a is rotated by the barrel 6 in the opposite direction causing the arm 34: to move also in the opposite direction, the working of the said springs being thus continued alternately until the force of both springs is exhausted. It might be stated that the bolt 35 which has been passed through the notch 38 is again raised on the upper surface of the disk 39 as during the rotation of the latter is moved upward on the incline 4L0.

As above described and shown by the accompanying drawing the working of the device is based on the act that the force is borrowed by alternation from one or the other spring which is possible thanks to the fact that during the work of one of the springs, the other spring remains inactive.

A special working of the driving mechanism is obtained by giving to one of the springs, for instance to the spring 1 inclosed in the barrel a a higher initial tension than to the other one (spring 2 inclosed in b), the tension of this second spring being in creased during the function of the first one and this from the outside by the forcible carrying on of this second spring casing by the first one in a direction which is opposite to that in which the force of the spring tends to rotate it, while the first spring, after having furnished its work is locked in the well known manner. In this case the described locking device for the second (weaker) spring is dispensed with. A numeric dia gram will allow to explain easily this function the spring 1 being tensioned at the start with a force of say 100, the spring 2 with a force of say 75 units of force. This diagram is as follows:

START: rnoron'riox or roneus 1.00 75.

two springs have both yielded all the energy stored therein.

The numerals showing the respective forces cannot make any claim for accuracy; they only serve as a table for showing the working.

Having now fully described my said invention what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a driving mechanism of the kind described the combination with a clock train of a plurality of sources of energy meshing together continuously, means for positively connecting the said sources of energy alternately with the said clock train at determined intervals of time and means for rendering inactive that source of energy which is not positively connected with said clock train, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

2. In a driving mechanism of the kind described the combination with a clock train of two spiral springs each inclosed in a spring barrel, a barrel wheel integral with each of said spring barrels and constantly meshing together, means for winding up the said springscin the same direction, means for positively connecting the said spring casings alternately and at equal periods of time with the said clock train, and means for rendering inactive that spring which is not in driving relation with the said clock train while allowing of its barrel partaking in the rotary motion, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

3. In a driving mechanism of the kind described the combination with a clock train, of two spiral springs, spring barrels containing said springs and having the outer end thereof secured to their inner peripheric wall, barrel wheels made integral with said spring barrels and continuously meshing together, a tubular spring hub axially arranged in each of said spring barrels and having connected to it the inner end of said spiral spring, a shaft in each of said tubular hubs, a means for winding up the said springs in the same direction through the medium of said shaft, a pawl and ratchet wheel stop connected with said spring hub, a toothed crown on the lower edge of said tubular hub, a similar toothed crown pro vided on the lower face of said spring barrel adjacent and concentric to said toothed crown of the hub,'a coupling disk freely mounted on said shaft opposite said toothed crowns and provided with teeth adapted to engage and lock the said toothed crowns together, means actuated by said clock train and adapted to alternately look at determined intervals one of said spring barrels and free the other and inversely and means also, actuated by said clock train and adapted to alternately engage and disengage the said stop pawls, and means for causing the said spring barrels to act alternately and at determined intervals of time on said clock train, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

4:. In a driving mechanism of the kind described the combination with a clock train, of two spring barrels, a spiral spring inclosed in each of said barrels and having its outer end secured to the inner wall thereof, barrel wheels made integral with said barrels and continuously meshing with each other, a tubular hub provided in each of said barrels and having the inner end of said spring secured to it, means for winding the two springs up in the same direction and means for locking together the hub and barrel of one spring, and at the same time free the corresponding members of the other spring and inversely at determined periods of time, and a device adapted to cause the said springs to drive alternately the said clock train, this device comprising, an oscillating cage carrying at its ends intermediate pinions adapted to mesh alternately with the corresponding barrel wheel, a wheel connected with each of said pinions and continuously meshing each with the driving pinion of said clock train, means actuated from one of said barrel wheels and adapted to cause the said cage to oscillate so as to produce the said alternate meshing of said pinions with said barrel wheels, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

5. In a driving mechanism of the kind described the combination with a clock train, of two spring barrels, a spiral spring inclosed in each of said barrels and having its outer end secured to the inner wall thereof barrel wieels made integral with said barrels and continuously meshing with each other, a tubular hub provided in each of said barrels and having the inner end of said spiral spring secured to it, means for winding the said two springs up in the same direction, and means for locking together the hub and barrel of one spring and at the same time free the corresponding members of the other spring and inversely at determined periods, and a device adapted to cause the said springs to drive alternately with said clock train, this device comprising an oscillating cage carrying at each of its ends an intermediate pinion adapted to mesh with the corresponding barrel wheel when approached by the said cage, a wheel connected with each of said pinions and meshing each continuously with the driving pinion of said clock train, a pinion meshing continuously with one of said barrel wheels, a shaft carrying said pinion, a lever arm carried by said shaft and a pin secured to said arm and adapted to engage the said cage and cause it to oscillate, so as to alternately put one of said intermediate pinions in mesh with the corresponding barrel wheel and disengage the other intermediate pinion, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

6. In a driving mechanism of the kind de scribed the combination with a clock train of a plurality of springs inclosed in spring barrels, barrel wheels made integral with said spring barrels and continuously meshing with each other, means for winding up the said springs so as to give them different working tensions, means for positively connecting the said barrel wheels alternately with the said clock train so as to be able to drive the latter and means for causing the spring which has the strongest tension and is positively connected at a given moment with the clock train to increase the tension of the weaker spring which at this moment is not connected with the clock train, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in presence of two witnesses.

HERBERT ALBERT SANDOR.

Witnesses:

WILLIAM HENRY HOFLIN, RUDOLPH CHARLES NIoKoL. 

